Absolution

Chapter Two: Apocalypse Please.

"Declare this an emergency,

Come on and spread a sense of urgency."


Pale morning light filtered into Ryou's room, glinting across his mirror until he had to squint to see his own reflection. He was a study in sliver and blue—his hair fell in uneven waves down his back, standing out starkly against his dark blue uniform, his skin looked bleached of all color, and his eyes shown like clear pools of the deepest water—yet… squinting as he was, Ryou could almost swear that he looked different. Where normally his face was round and boyish, he now seemed sharp and angular, his hair was wild, and his eyes were mischievous and calculating. But, in the blink of an eye, those qualities were gone—merely a trick of the sun and his ever growing nerves.

He'd been living in Domino for a week now, but today would be his first day at the new school. It seemed a little cosmically cruel that he would be faced with the stress of returning to high school on his birthday, of all days. He would have no one to celebrate with, no one to care that he was another year older.

Slowly, burdened by his melancholy, Ryou turned from his mirror, making his way to the kitchen for a quick breakfast. He never made it that far though. Barely a step outside of his room, and his eyes were immediately snagged by the gift his father had given him. Caught in the undiluted light from the open windows, the golden ring seemed to glow with the radiance of a fire.

He hadn't forgotten what had happened the night before, how he had felt and seen things that couldn't have been there while he'd worn the ring. Even now, hours later, his nerves were still being grated by a misplaced sense of extra. But, somehow, shining so brilliantly, the ring beckoned him and, at the back of his mind, the dark whispers from his dreams grew louder and more insistent. It spoke in words that were meaningless to him, maybe not even words at all, but its desire was clear—it wanted the ring.

Ryou reached for the pendant, but hesitated before his fingers brushed against the beautiful gold. He had long ago learned to accept that there were things about him that weren't normal—his appearance, his unexplained attraction to luxury, and his premonitions—but this was beyond even his scope. He was hearing a voice now, a voice he knew had to be in his mind—and he was going to listen to its coaxing? He'd already been frightened by the ring once, would he really subject himself to that again because his imagination asked him to? He shook his head and backed away from the hall table, ignoring the voice when it began to rebuke him.

"It's just stress," he reassured himself, turning from the ring. "I'm just—"

Don't, the ghostly voice whispered, the word mangled until it was almost unrecognizable as Japanese. Don't leave it , the voice stressed. But it seemed to have run out of words Ryou could understand, because it lapsed back into its strange language, letting loose a barrage of urgent, unintelligible sounds.

Ryou dashed to his kitchen, eager to get away but, unsurprisingly, the voice continued on, growing louder as each minute passed. By the time he finished breakfast, the silver-haired boy felt as though someone was screaming into his ear. Desperate, panicked, he set aside all his doubts and donned the ring once more. The feeling of extra intensified—as though thousands of nerves awakened in places he hadn't known he could feel—but the voice quieted back down to the dull murmur it had once been.

"Well this is a perfect way to start my new school life," he growled sarcastically, quickly slipping his shoes on. "I'm obviously having a psychotic breakdown in celebration."
_______________________________________

Ryou felt his panic swell to new heights when the homeroom teacher introduced him to his new class. He hated this, hated standing in front of everyone like some kind of spectacle for them to gawk at; he knew what he looked like to them: a freak. A blue-eyed albino with a face androgynous enough to be considered feminine. He was weak and quiet, submissive, and others took advantage of that.

Anger began to simmer in his blood, anger at himself and his would-be bullies. It might have eventually turned into hatred if his eyes hadn't caught on a boy toward the back of the class—a boy with wild, tri-colored hair and a smiling face. The boy he'd dreamt about.

With his curiosity peaked, Ryou went to sit at his new desk, sneaking a glance at the boy every now and again. What had his dream been trying to tell him about this person? The question ate away at him until it was all he could think about, and he began to covet the impending free period. But the minutes ticked by at a painfully slow rate, building up a restlessness in him until, what felt like a small eternity later, it was finally time for the first break-period.

From one moment to the next, however, he found himself instantly and uncomfortably surrounded. His new classmates closed in around him, forming a living wall of flesh. Panic crept slowly through his mind once again—if there was one thing he hated more than being bullied, it was having his exits cut off. His father had often said it was simply claustrophobia, but Ryou disagreed; tight and small spaces had never bothered him, so long as he knew how to get out of them, but the moment his escape routes were blocked, a cold fear would begin to eat away at him.

Don't , the voice that only he could hear suddenly instructed. It had no more wise words that he could understand to calm his rising terror, but it spoke to him to in hushed tones, like a trainer to a spooked animal. Given enough time, it probably would have broken through the inane babble and rapid-fire questions of his classmates, but something curious happened. The tri-color haired boy squeezed through the crowd of people, and the minute he came fully in view, the voice fell silent for the first time in hours.

The students slowly began to disperse from the unresponsive new kid, leaving room for their shortest classmate and his friends. "Hello," the cheerful, violet-eyed boy greeted. "I'm Yugi, and these are my friends Jonouchi," he motioned to the rough looking blond, then the sweet-faced brunette girl, "this is Anzu, and that's Honda," he finished, pointing to his remaining companion.

"Pleased to meet you," Ryou finally found his voice. "I'm Ryou, although I suppose you already gathered that."

Yugi nodded, laughing a little. "You must be all turned around today," he sympathized.

You have no idea, Ryou thought to himself, but merely smiled to his sudden companions.

"Well, here's something to take your mind off of the first-day jitters for a while," the blond cut in. He clapped the shorter boy on the shoulder, "Yugi here is too shy to ask on his own, but he was wondering if you like games."

"Jonouchi," Yugi chastised, clutching something around his neck closely. Between his fingers a hint of gold glimmered.

The voice in Ryou's mind stayed silent, but he still felt its presence, as though it were holding its breath in anticipation.

"I like games very much," Ryou answered after a thoughtful pause, "especially tabletop and role-playing games." That set off a spark of chatter through the assembled teens that lasted most of the break-period, comparing and contrasting their favorite games. In that moment Ryou knew he had found kindred spirits, people who enjoyed the thrill of a good challenge and wouldn't think him odd for the types of games he favored. For once, it finally felt as though he had friends who, if they didn't completely understand him, would accept him nonetheless. Still, it wasn't until a few minutes before the break-period was over that he worked up the courage to ask Yugi about the object he was still tightly gripping.

"This?" the boy asked, finally holding it up to the light. It was a solid, heavy object made of gold, shaped like an upside-down pyramid, with the Eye of Horus gracing one side. "This is my puzzle," he answered fondly. And now that Ryou knew what to look for, he could see the spidering cracks where all the pieces joined together. "It took me eight years to put it together, but it was worth it."

The puzzle bore such a striking resemblance to Ryou's ring that it couldn't have been coincidence. Was this what his dream had been trying to tell him? "May I see it for a moment?" he asked curiously. "My father is an Egyptologist, and he found something quite similar recently."

"Your father is an Egyptologist?" Yugi asked eagerly as he carefully handed his puzzle over. "That must be really interesting!"

Maybe , Ryou thought to himself, but not when the price of knowledge is paid at the expense of your family . Shaking off the melancholy, he grasped the golden puzzle, but the moment his fingers brushed its smooth surface, he nearly doubled over in pain. It felt as though a hand had plunged through his chest to grip the very heart of him.

"Are you alright, Ryou?" his new friends rushed to ask.

His senses reeled, and for one very bizarre moment it felt like there were two of him. However, the vertigo dissipated quickly, leaving him shaken but fine, the puzzle still in his hands. "It's nothing," he threw off his remaining unease and turned his attention back to the artifact in his midst. "Where did you get this?"

"I live in a game store," Yugi replied, worry still lurking in his eyes even as he warmed up to the subject. "It was hidden on one of the back shelves, collecting dust, so I thought I would put it together. I don't know how my grandpa got a hold of it—he's the one who runs the game store, by the way—but I was told that the puzzle was found in the tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh."

"That's strange," Ryou responded, handing the small pyramid back to Yugi, "because it looks so similar to my pendant, but my father said he found it in a market." Quickly, he hooked one finger under the chord around his neck, drawing it up until the golden ring slipped out from under his uniform jacket.

The four teens marveled over the object for a moment, comparing it to the puzzle. Curiosity passed over all of them, save for Yugi whose eyes grew cloudy and concerned. Ryou was about to ask the shorter boy what was wrong, but the break-period was over, class was starting once more.

The rest of the day continued on as the morning had, slow and tedious, and there never seemed to be enough time to ask Yugi what was suddenly bothering him. As a matter of fact, he didn't have the opportunity to speak with Yugi alone until school was let out and everyone began to walk home. By some stroke of luck or fate, they lived close enough together that they both took the same path to and from school, whereas Anzu, Jonouchi, and Honda all lived in the opposite direction.

"I didn't want to say anything in front of the others," Yugi suddenly broke their silence, beating Ryou to the conversation, "but I wanted to ask you something about that ring." His violet eyes roamed over the rounded gold for a moment. "Has anything…" he hesitated, as though looking for the right words, "…weird happened to you or around you since you started wearing it?"

"Weird?" Ryou repeated, thinking of the strange feelings the ring had given him, not to mention the voice that had plagued him that morning.

"Well," the shorter boy scuffed at the ground with his shoe, not meeting the albino's eyes, "things like constantly losing track of time, or having long lapses in your memory." He looked up at his taller companion then, his violet eyes shining with uncertainty. "I've always considered the puzzle to be my treasure, but sometimes I get a weird feeling from it, like I'm caught in a strong tide and I can't fight it."

The white-haired boy blinked. So he hadn't imagined the eeriness that seemed to surround his birthday present. "I only just received the ring last night, so I really couldn't say anything about memory problems," he finally replied. "But it does give off a curious feeling, like an aura of familiarity… and something strange and dark that I can't put any words to, much like your own feeling." Should he bring up the voice? Yugi had taken a great leap of faith in opening up about how the puzzle was affecting his life, could Ryou do the same?

"Something else is on your mind," Yugi guessed astutely. "What is it?"

Ryou took a deep breath and decided to plunge in headfirst. "I don't say this lightly, so please take me seriously," he hedged. "I was given the ring last night, and when I put it on it gave me an uncomfortable feeling—like there was a new part of me that wasn't supposed to be there—so I took it off right away. But that night I dreamt of a voice, and when I woke up that voice was with me still, murmuring for hours on end, trying to influence me with words I couldn't understand." He snuck a peak at the other boy through the hazy whiteness of his lowered bangs. "Do you think I'm crazy?"

"No," Yugi shook his head slowly. "I don't think that's crazy at all. Sometimes—not often, but sometimes—I think I can hear a voice calling from deep inside myself; only it doesn't speak in words at all, it just lets me know it's there."

Ryou took a moment to digest that, coming to a stop a stop in front of his apartment building. "Mine seemed to talk constantly; in fact, it didn't stop at all until—" Pain gripped his chest again, squeezing the air from his lungs until he was left coughing.

Yugi's eyes widened in alarm. "Ryou?" he asked urgently. "What's wrong?"

His lung filled with sweet air after a minute, but they felt bruised now, as though they had to labor to do something that came naturally. "I don't know," he answered truthfully. He coughed a few more times, masking a groan when the low voice began to whisper again, but this time, he caught sounds that made sense to him. That strange tongue filled his mind, rumbling words that were just on the edge of his understanding.

"Ryou?" Yugi asked again.

The voice turned unseen eyes to the short teen, and Ryou panicked. Something in his gut told him to get away from Yugi. "I should probably rest or something," he gestured vaguely to the apartment complex behind him. "I'll see you around," he added quickly, jogging away before Yugi could say anything.

I've finally found it , the voice crowed as Ryou burst through his front door. The Sennen Puzzle , it breathed in awe.

"Shut up!" the blue-eyed boy snapped. "You were quiet for most of the school day, why'd you have to start talking again?"

I don't play to your whims, child , it snorted amusedly.

"Well, maybe you should, seeing as you're in my head!" Ryou countered heatedly, pacing his living room floor.

You understand me now? It sounded wondering at first, then let out a wicked laugh. That certainly makes things easier.

"Great, now I'm having a conversation with the voice in my head," Ryou grumbled to himself. "But I suppose I'll play along. What are you talking about?"

The air rippled for a moment, like a heat-induced mirage of water, and out of those ripples emerged a figure. It flickered like a dying star, brightly flashing in and out of existence, but it was enough for Ryou to clearly see what he was facing. The figure was a boy, taller than him by nearly a head, but probably not much older than he was. He had short, silver hair that stood out in snowy contrast to his darkly tanned skin, and eyes so darkly blue they were nearly black. The boy wore a simple wrap of cloth around his waist, and a large red coat that seemed designed to hide his tightly muscled form and the shadowy copy it possessed of Ryou's ring. He was sketchy-looking, at best; danger tinged his aura, and a hint of insanity played around his eyes.

"Who are you?" Ryou asked, taking an involuntary step back.

The boy reached out a flickering, ghostly hand until he was nearly cupping the bewildered teen's face. Look at what three thousand years have done to us , he spoke, but never moved his lips. We're weak, accommodating, and unambitious. A calculating smile twisted his face. But don't worry; I know the perfect cure for that.

Ryou backed up, panicking. "What are you talking about?"

There's that question again. The boy—ghost?—cocked his head to the side, contemplating. Your first answer is: it makes things easier, because I wouldn't have bothered appearing before you if you couldn't understand me; it wouldn't have been a risk worth taking. Your second answer is: reincarnation.

Ryou finally hit the back of his sofa, stumbling until he fell onto the plush cushions. "This," he faltered, nervously clutching at the ring around his neck. "This is too much to take in. What are you, why are you here, and what the hell do you mean by reincarnation?"

All in good time , he tsked, drawing closer until he was leaning over the couch, looming above Ryou. First we have to do something about this… softness of yours. It's hardly befitting.

"Stay away from me," the shorter teen vaulted off the sofa, dashing across the room.

You needn't worry , the ghost purred, mischief shining in his dark eyes. Soon enough, you'll realize how much more fun my way is.

Ryou seized hold of a lamp, brandishing it like a sword. "I'm warning you—"

The ghost laughed deeply, manically. Relax, child, I won't hurt you. But, perhaps, if you fear me so deeply, it would be best if you just sat this one out. He swayed for a moment, as though dancing while he thought it over. Yes, that would be for the best.

A sudden lethargy swept through the smaller boy, clouding his senses completely. The last thing he heard before darkness swallowed him was the enchanting whisper of the strange boy that had come from nowhere.

Sleep, Ryou Bakura, and dream of riches far beyond your grasp.
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A/N: I know a bunch of you probably want to tell me that Ryou has brown eyes—I disagree. In season zero they were green, and in a few color spreads from the manga they were blue. I think blue fits him the best, so that's what I'm sticking with.

Also, I'm obviously playing around with the mythos. I understand why the yamis appear like their hikaris when they possess their counterparts' body, but I have never understood why they don't look like their proper Egyptian selves when they appear in ghost-form. It doesn't make any sense—I mean, they're essentially ghosts, right? Why would they not appear in death as they had in life?

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Disclaimer: Everything here belongs to Kazuki Takahashi or Muse, respectively.